Around the Union
Dear Members of the Deep South Rugby Union,
Please send us your updates, stories, and press releases. We are looking forward to posting them here for everyone to read.
Thank You
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To Participating Teams:
cc. Union Officials, Event Officials
Below please find press release for the 2010 NSCRO Men's Collegiate
Division 3 National Rugby Championship that was issued today to the US
Rugby Media and USA Rugby.
Any questions, please let me know.
Steve Cohen
President and Co-Founder, NSCRO
www.nscro.org
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Penn State Berks Captures the 2010 NSCRO Men's Collegiate Division 3
National Rugby Championship
April 25, 2010 - Virginia Beach, VA
In what can be best described as "nailbiter" rugby with 3 of
the 4 matches going down to the end, Penn State Berks (East Penn RU)
emerged as the winner of the 2010 NSCRO Men's Collegiate Division 3
National Rugby Championship with a thrilling 11 to 6 win over Keene State
College (New England RFU) at the Virginia Beach Sportsplex. In the 3rd
place match and the only "no doubt" match, the Ragin' Cajuns of
the University of Louisiana Lafayette (Deep South RU) came out firing on
all cylinders against William Paterson University (Met New York RFU) and
never looked back with a 43 to 0 victory.
Penn State Berks from Reading, PA under the tutelage of long-time rugby
stalwart and coach, Dr. Bruce Hale, needed the real "luck of the
Irish" for them to make it into the final. On Saturday, WPU (Wayne,
NJ) pounded their way late against Berks and seemed to have the match won
when on the final play with no time left, they score a try by the posts
only to see their usual reliable kicker barely missed the conversion.
Berks held on to a 17-16 win as a result. Matt ‘Teddy’ Moyer, Darryl
Davis, and Eric Rubik each scored a try and Casey Correa made a
conversion to account for Berks points.
In the other semifinal, Keene State (Keene, NH) continued its "never
give up" 80 minute game plan and with its straight ahead power by
its pack, kept pressure on ULL (Lafayette, LA) despite being never having
the lead until its last score. In the first half, ULL was able to use its
speed to its advantage and take an 8-6 halftime lead. In the second half,
ULL kept its speed going and took a 15-6 lead with a try and conversion 7
minutes in. Keene's pressure finally paid off with fullback Kevin Day
scoring a try on a blocked kick and with the Andrew Plewa conversion
brought his team within 2 pts of ULL at 15-13. ULL quickly responded with
its own try and took a 22-13 lead. With 12 minutes left, after a ULL
player was yellow card for repeated "team" infringements, Keene
was awarded a penalty try when a ULL intentionally played the ball
illegally right on the goal line. Flyhalf Plewa's conversion made it
22-20. Plewa's precision kicking along with too many penalties kept ULL
under pressure for too much of the second half. With 5 minutes left,
another blocked kick gave replacement player Matt Brady the ball and he
scored enabling Keene to pull off the comeback 25 to 22 over a
disappointed ULL team. Two weeks earlier, Keene State qualified for the
Championship with a late penalty goal by Plewa to beat the Allegheny RU
Champion, Carnegie Mellon University 19-17.
On Sunday, Berks entered the championship match against the solid Keene
State team knowing that they would need all 80 minutes to win. On
the opening kickoff by Berks, an alert Joe Morrione stripped the ball
from a Keene wing and ran 15 meters for what would be the only try of the
match. Three minutes later winger Casey Correa added a penalty kick
for a Berks 8-0 lead. Berks were able to control the Keene forwards
and dominate both territory and possession as well as utilizing the
excellent decision-making and boot of flyhalf Cesare Coscia. A strong
wind at his back aided his kicks to "fly". When Keene won
possession of the ball, Berks loose forwards were all over the Keene
flyhalf. Berks enlarged their lead to 11-0 when winger Eric Rubik
converted a monstrous 48 meter penalty goal with 3 minutes left on the
half.
In the second half, Berks played mostly defensive rugby against the wind
and the foot of the Keene flyhalf Andrew Plewa who kept Berks pinned down
in their end. Berks lost a flanker to a yellow card at the 28th minute
and despite Berks playing a man down for 10 minutes, Keene was unable to
score a point. Plewa was able to kick two penalty goals to bring the
score to 11-6, the last kick with 3 minutes left. In the final 20
minutes, Berks was constantly under pressure inside their 22 meter line.
Somehow, they were able to tackle and stop every attacking Keene player.
At least 3 times, they were to hold up the ball in-goal to prevent a
Keene try, including on the final play of the match to just hang on to
their victory and capture the first National Championship for any sports
team in their school's history. It also marked the first Division 3
Championship for a team not from either the USA Rugby South or New
England RFU starting with the inaugural 2002 East Coast Championship.
Keene State deserves special recognition for their 2nd place finish,
because due to the long winter in New Hampshire which kept playing fields
under snow or water, the club's first match of the Spring was on April 11
against Carnegie Mellon. The following weekend a scheduled match was
cancelled by their opponents. So this weekend saw them play their 2nd and
3rd matches of the Spring.
Berk's flyhalf Cesare Coscia was awarded the Most Valuable Player (MVP)
trophy, while Keene State's flyhalf Andrew "English" Plewa was
named by his coach, John "Bunk" Johannsen as the "Heart
and Soul" of his club and was awarded the game ball.1
A crowd of over 100 spectators, including friends and families of the
players, enjoyed the action on the field and provided great support to
the players throughout the weekend.
The Championship was hosted by the Norfolk Blues RFC under the guidance
of Matt Robinette at the Virginia Beach Sportsplex - a state of the art
facility - that was a setting befitting a National Championship event.
The facility provided the student-athletes with a venue that really
"blew them away" with its excellent playing surface, locker
rooms and showers, spectator stands, concessions and more. Even the
weather cooperated, notwithstanding the strong winds on Sunday, as rain
showers which were predicted all weekend never really materialized during
any match.
The NSCRO extends its appreciation to those who helped make this an
outstanding rugby event, especially to the host coordinator, Matt
Robinette, along with his club, the Norfolk Blues RFC
(
www.bluesrugby.org) for organizing the venue; the match officials,
Referees Stuart "Boomer" Willis and Rob Seiler and Assistant
Referees David Chapman and Jeff Anderson; the employees at the Virginia
Beach Sportsplex and the medical staff (ATC and EMT/ambulance). Chris
"Chilly" Kirkwood of Love Rugby Company
(
www.loverugbycompany.com) provided the event t-shirts and rugby
merchandise.
All of the matches were videotaped by BC Productions under the direction
of owner Roberto Albarracin
(
www.bbcstudio.com). Expert match commentary was provided by USA
Women's Eagle Phaidra Knight.
As an incentive for teams to use the official event hotel, NSCRO will
reimburse each team $250 for doing so.
The NSCRO is looking forward to the 2010-11 competitive season for Men's
Collegiate Division 3 rugby as it looks to expand its playoff structure
to include teams from 6 Midwest LAUs, 3 West LAUs and the Southern
California RFU.
For more information on the NSCRO, including the Playoff Brackets showing
how 99 eligible teams started a competition and one survived, go to
www.nscro.org
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30th Annual “Throw Me Something, Rugger!”
Mardi Gras Women’s Rugby Tournament
The 30th Annual “Throw Me Something, Rugger!” Mardi Gras Women’s Rugby Tournament was a great success! Teams and players from 16 states braved unusual Southern snows to compete in this special anniversary. Deep South’s own University of Alabama advanced to the semi-finals against Indiana, while 2009 runner-up Oklahoma played Virginia Tech. Virginia Tech became the 2010 College Division champions over Indiana University in an exciting, competitive final.
In the Club division, the Olde Girls playing as the Buffalo Girls defeated D1’s Chicago Women to advance to the final against D1 Tournament semi-finalist, Atlanta Harlequins. The Olde Girls dedicated the final match to team founder Meg Votta, who recently passed away (See Rugby Magazine, Jan/Feb 2010). Atlanta was nevertheless able to squeak out a win by 7-0 to become the new Mardi Gras Club Champs.
For the 4th year, New Orleans collaborated with the U.S. Women’s Rugby Foundation to coordinate the New Orleans Rugby Recovery Effort, to provide participating teams an opportunity to help rebuild a New Orleans area home damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. This year showed even greater participation with members of Wisconsin, Chicago, Atlanta and the Olde Girls volunteering their sweat for local New Orleans families. An evening of bowling hosted by the Olde Girls allowed volunteers an opportunity to relax and mingle.
Thanks to all the participating teams in helping rebuild New Orleans and the Halfmoons, including Chicago, Wisconsin, the Olde Girls, Virginia Tech, Indiana, Memphis, USM, Florida State, Rice, Atlanta, Alabama, and Oklahoma. A very special thanks to Chicago, Wisconsin, Atlanta and the Olde Girls for also participating in the New Orleans Rugby Recovery Effort.
By Karen Dicke
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First Annual Beer Olympics
The men and women of Baton Rouge Rugby are holding our Fist Annual Beer Olympics on November 13th starting at 7pm in honor of Hunter. All proceeds made from this event will go towards his medical bills.
For those of you that do not know Hunter had an intestinal diverticulitis emergency on the trip to Missoula. He had two emergency surgeries and spent three weeks in the hospital.
Entry fee for a team of 5 is $100 until November 1st. It will be $125 after. The entry fee will get you a night of competitive drinking and free beer for the rest of the event. They should go online at www.pinkrugby.org/CajunRugbyFundraiser.html and pay for their entry fee and email me at hfrench@vetmail.lsu.edu to sign up a team.
We will have food, entertainment, a silent auction, and some silly games on the side so even if they don't want to play drinking games, they won't be bored!
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USA Rugby South Women's Division II
Regional Championships were held in Miami, FL on October 3-4
Participating teams:
1. Miami
2. Memphis
3. Palmetto/Charleston
4. Baton Rouge
On Saturday, #2 seed Memphis from the Midsouth LAU and #3 seed Palmetto LAU/Charleston started things off. Palmetto/Charleston defeated Memphis 17-5 to move on to the finals. For the second game of the day, #4 seeded Deep South LAU team Baton Rouge played the #1 seeded Miami from the Florida LAU. Miami fought for the first try of the game, with Baton Rouge nipping at their heels. Center Lacy Crouch scored a diving try to tie the game 7-7 with fullback Hannah Kaufmann-Swang converting the kick. Miami scored once more, pulling ahead 12-7 by the half. However, Miami kept up the pace second half and came out on top 22-7. Despite the defeat, the Baton Rouge Barbarians, or "Barbies", managed to turn some heads in their hard fought game against Miami - their first playoff match since the formation of the team in 2006. Several spectators described the game as "the best game of the series". The Barbies earned some respect and a lot of supporters for their Sunday game against Memphis.
On Sunday, Baton Rouge went up against Memphis for the consolation match. Flyhalf Lacey Galliano was the first to score for Baton Rouge, followed by a penalty try kicked by Hannah Kaufmann-Swang. Samantha Jordan, who burst through the Memphis back line defense with ease, and Hannah-Kaufmann Swang completed the half with their own tries. Hannah was on top of her game, converting all of her kicks to bring the score to 24-0 by the half. The second half was much less eventful, but Baton Rouge managed to hold their lead and defeated Memphis 24-0!
Miami defeated the Palmetto LAU on Sunday to take the #1 seed for the South. Please join us in congratulating Miami and Palmetto/Charleston, who will represent the South in the Division II National Championships in San Francisco, CA on November 7-8. Good Luck from all of the Deep South!
In addition, four of the Barbarian ladies were recognized by the South by being recommended for the Senior Select Side. Congratulations Samantha Jordan, Lacey Galliano, Hannah Kaufmann-Swang and Hilari French!
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Vulcan 7s Tie Breaker in 2010?
The 26th Annual Vulcan 7s Tournament was held in Birmingham, Alabama June 27th, 2009. The tournament was a huge success with 20 men's teams and 4 women's teams. The women's teams were The Atlanta Harlequins, Alabama Motleys, Chattanooga, and Georgia Tech. There was no official winner from the women's bracket, though the Harlequins appeared to be the likely winner.
Making the playoff rounds for the men were Life, MTSU, New Orleans, and Old White. New Orleans beat MTSU in their semi-final match while Old White celebrated a convincing victory over Life to earn their spot in the finals. The atmosphere was electric as fans crowded to the stadium to witness the rematch between Old White and New Orleans. In the 2008 Vulcan 7s Tournament finals New Orleans defeated Old White.
Trailing 19-14 late in the match, New Orleans focused on sound ball control to put together a long drive down the pitch. An aggressive hit up nearly broke New Orleans free into the open field just 20 meters shy of the try line. Unfortunately for New Orleans, but fortunately for Old White, the ball was knocked on in the process and full time followed shortly after. We will never know if the conversion would have taken New Orleans to victory or forced overtime. Congratulations to Old White. Mark your calendars for the last Saturday in June, 2010 to see if there will be a tie-breaker between the two or if your team can take the crown.
Michael Laney
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Attention all Lady Ruggers!
Grab your boots and shorts and get ready to play rugby in the Deep South Rugby Union.
There are four tournaments that have decided to make special offers just to the ladies. Yes, times they have changed!
Vulcan 7sDate: June 27, 2009Location: Birmingham, AlabamaTournament Contact: John Goodwyne-mail: jgoodwyn@elliswyatt.com
Deal Offered:
$100 early entry fee and $150 entry fee the day of the tournament. The
first 4 teams to show up AT THE PARTY will receive a $50 refund,
however there must be a total of seven teams entered.
| Red Fish 7sDate: July 11, 2009Location: Baton Rouge, LouisianaTournament Contact: Hunter Guidrye-mail: cajunrugby@hotmail.com
Deal Offered: $150 early entry fee and $175 entry fee after July 6, 2009.
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Panama City Beach 7sDate: August 29, 2009Location: Panama City Beach, FloridaTournament Contact: Mark Younge-mail: mark.young@tyndall.af.mil
Deal Offered: NO ENTRY FEE FOR LADIES TEAMS! The request that this tournament has, is that teams please get rooms at the host hotel. If for economic reasons a team needs to consider a different venue, please contact Mark.
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Battleship Rugby TournamentDate: November 7-8, 2009Location: Mobile, AlabamaTournament Contact: Lars Granadee-mail: lars_granade@mobile-da.org
Deal Offered: Due to the changes made to the Women's USA Rugby Schedule, we will offer women's teams a full refund of their entry fee if they make the Championships. This will only be in effect for women's teams that take advantage of the early entry fee offer of $325 before September 1, 2009.
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Brother Martin v Shaw
The Deep South (Louisiana) High School teams were very well represented this year at the South High School Regional Championships in Tennessee with the top three teams qualifying to represent our union. The schools competing for the Deep South were our Champions Rummel, second place team Brother Martin and the third place Shaw Eagles. Seeding and slots in this event are based on the performance from the prior year. Rummel and Brother Martin both competed in the 8 team single school division and Shaw in the 8 team multi-school division.
Saturday was a great day for the Louisiana teams with Rummel advancing to the finals with 2 wins on the day including a very tight 16-12 victory over Gilbert High School of South Carolina in the semi final match. Brother Martin and Shaw were both 1-1 on the day, making the Deep South (Louisiana) High School teams 4-2 on the opening day of the event.
Sunday was not as kind to the Louisiana teams as Rummel was to lose a tight match in the final to finish as the second team in the south. Brother Martin also lost in a close match, but the heartbreaker was the Shaw Eagles losing as time expired after taking the lead with minutes to play.
Congratulations to all the high school teams that competed and know that the Deep South (Louisiana) High School teams represented our union very well. Also a huge congratulation and praise go out to the coaches and parents of these teams for their commitment to represent their schools and areas so well.
Steve Parrill
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Congratulations to Rummel Raider Rugby Club
Congratulations go out to the Rummel Raider Rugby club who continued an undefeated run through the regular season to its second consecutive state championship. The 2009 Rugby State Champions from Rummel now advance to the U.S.A. Rugby High School South Regional next week in Tennessee where they will defend their title as the 2008 South Regional Champions.
At the state tournament in Gretna the Raiders won their first game by a score of 38 to 5 against the ruggers from Shaw. Senior team captain, Allen Alongi, led all scorers with 1 try and 6 kicks, for a total of 18 points. Also scoring 5 point tries against Shaw were seniors Brandon Boyer and Jon Stout, junior Ryan Lowe, and sophomore Daniel Chamorro. In Shaw*s second game, the Eagles eliminated the Jesuit Blue Jays from regional competition.
The Ruggers from Brother Martin, after beating Jesuit in a very close game, faced the Raiders in the championship game. Although the Raiders defeated the Crusaders in two blow-out games during the regular season, the Crusaders lost the hard-fought championship in a well-played game against the ruggers from Rummel.
In the championship game against Brother Martin, the Raiders won by a score of 17 to 7 and were led by senior Brandon Boyer who scored 2 tries for 10 points. Senior Corey Kennedy also scored a try while Alongi added a kick for 2 points. Other players who made important contributions to both wins were seniors Ryan Martinez, Bryan Arceneaux, Alex Nash, Jake Peltier, Dominick Castillo, Jeremy Batson, and Joe Cespedes; juniors Don Zemo and Charlie LaGrange also contributed.
Rummel
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Louisiana High School D2 Championship
The fourth Louisiana High School D2 championship was played last Saturday March 28, for the first time in Lafayette at the ESA campus in Cade just outside Lafayette. Jesuit B, Brother Martin B, ESA and South Louisiana were the participants.
The first match was between first seed ESA and fourth seed South Louisiana, a newly formed team composed of players from Lafayette, Baton Rouge and Hammond. The South Louisiana team had only 3 matches under its belt before this one and had to play an experienced ESA team with 12 seniors, some who started playing in eighth grade. While South Louisiana played hard till the end, delivering some good hits and springing loose for several good gains, ESA rolled to an 84-0 victory.
The next match to see who would get to play ESA in the finals was between Brother Martin and Jesuit. These two teams had just played each other the preceding Thursday and Jesuit came out on top in that one 10-0. The rematch was a classic BM-Jesuit match. The first half ended in a 0-0 score with each team digging deep when threatened. Both shut down the other numerous times when their opponent was knocking on the door inside their 22. Brother Martin seemed to have a bit more advantage in the pack with larger more experienced forwards. Jesuit had the edge in the backs, with speedy, shifty running and relentless support that is vintage Blue jay rugby. Jesuit drew first blood on a nice run by its outside center, and held a 5-0 lead for almost 15 minutes of the second half. Brother Martin came back quickly and on a nice scoop of the ball out of a ruck by one of its forwards rambled in to tie it at 5 all. After the kickoff, Jesuit came right back, pushed deep into Crusader territory, and almost scored to take the lead but Brother Martin's defense would not allow it. With time winding down, Brother Martin again showed good quickness and deft footwork around the base of the ruck punching it in against a slew of Blue Jay defenders on the corner with less than 2 minutes remaining to make it 10-5. Jesuit managed to get the ball back after the kickoff, and with a splendid run by its fullback appeared on the verge of another score when a cut back inside at the Brother Martin 22 was greeted by a host of Brother Martin defenders snuffing out the scoring threat as time expired.
The consolation match between South Louisiana and Jesuit was much closer than many anticipated. Jesuit had to fight hard to go up 17-0 by the middle of the second half, and when South Louisiana scored to make it 17-5 with plenty of time remaining it looked like South Louisiana might come back. They drove quickly down the field after receiving the kickoff, but Jesuit was just too experienced to be upset and after stealing the ball in a ruck with South Louisiana inside its 22, was able to move quickly down the field to score again with maybe 10 minutes remaining. South Louisiana never threatened to score again and the final score was Jesuit 24- South La 5.
The championship match started out as if it was going to be a close slugfest, with each team delivering big hits and making some nice plays. But as it turned out ESA just had too much for the Crusaders to handle. ESA went up 17-0 on 2 scores from its pack and 1 from its backs in the first 20 minutes. Brother Martin came back and managed a score with some nice forward play in to make it 17-5. At that point it appeared that Brother Martin might get back into the game. ESA however would hear none of that, stealing possession on the ensuing kickoff zipping right back into the Crusader try zone with a nice scoring drive fueled by machine-like rucking to make it 24-5 at half.
A balanced ESA attack of forwards and backs and relentless pressure in the second half allowed ESA to secure the victory and its second State D2 title in four years, final score 41-5.
Billy Goodell
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